S.F. supervisors' panel backs Sequoia voting machines

SAN FRANCISCO Activists complain open-source software lacking

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, December 6, 2007

Photo: Michael Maloney

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Deirdre Burrell, an election clerk for the SF Department of Elections Voter Servicing Division tries out the audio voting for the visually impaired. The hand controls with raised arrows are used to register the votes.
The SF Board of Supes committee takes up a proposed contract with a new voting machine supplier (Sequoia Voting Systems) in time for the February election. The agreement would give the city certified voting equipment to allow for a more orderly counting of the vote. Sequoia Voting Systems had the voting machines on display at city hall for city officials and the media.
Photo taken on 12/5/07, in San Francisco, CA.
Photo by Michael Maloney / San Francisco Chronicle
***Deirdre Burrell less

Deirdre Burrell, an election clerk for the SF Department of Elections Voter Servicing Division tries out the audio voting for the visually impaired. The hand controls with raised arrows are used to register the ... more

Photo: Michael Maloney

S.F. supervisors' panel backs Sequoia voting machines

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Advocates for complete transparency in the inner workings of voting machines have found a sympathetic home in San Francisco - but they ran into a brick wall at City Hall on Wednesday.

A Board of Supervisors committee took the city a step closer to buying new voting machines that do not conform to the standard of complete openness that many activists view as the keystone of their movement.

Instead, a proposed $12.6 million contract with Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland - which the committee forwarded to the full board for a final vote next week - includes safeguards meant to mollify the advocates, like an independent review of the software used to tally votes.

The machines would replace the aging voting technology the city now uses, technology that is so unreliable California Secretary of State Debra Bowen imposed tough restrictions on its use in the Nov. 6 election.

Those restrictions, which Bowen's office characterized as putting accuracy over speed, delayed the reporting of results of the voting and caused the city to miss a deadline for certifying the final outcome of the election. City leaders do not want a repeat performance in February, when San Francisco ballots will help decide state presidential primaries.

The supervisors on the committee empathized with the activists, saying they, too, would prefer to buy voting technology from manufacturers that make their ballot tallying software publicly accessible for inspection. Such so-called open-source code would allow for public scrutiny of the accuracy of the equipment and act as a guard against tampering with elections. The problem is, no company sells open-source systems, citing concerns about giving away their technology to competitors.

"The reality is, that open source voting technology that we all desire is not there yet and will not be available to us for several years to come. San Francisco and the state of California may be at forefront of that movement, but in the short term we need a solution."

The four-year contract with Sequoia Voting Systems would replace the machines used at the city's polling places with newer technology for reading ballots, but the paper ballots themselves would remain the same and voters would notice little difference on election day.

The contract also mandates that Sequoia switch to open-source code within a year if another company brings such a product to the market. Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who sits on the committee, also recommended the creation of a task force to evaluate the city's options in the future, including whether San Francisco could create, manufacture and sell its own voting technology.

San Francisco's current machines manufactured by Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., can only read darker shades of ink, so absentee ballots marked in lighter colors weren't properly read or counted.

Sequoia, however, still must demonstrate to state election officials that its machines can accurately read and tabulate votes under San Francisco's ranked-choice voting system. The next ranked-choice election - which is used in San Francisco only in races for city office - is in November 2008.

If the company fails to obtain state certification of its systems before the November election, it will have to pay penalties of up to $3 million to the city.

Steve Bennett, an executive representing the company in San Francisco, said the firm doesn't anticipate making much money from the contract but worked hard to win it because of the prestige associated with helping a city like San Francisco run elections.

"It's not the dollar amount; financially the contract is a draw," Bennett said. "It's about getting a flagpole in San Francisco."

Turner said he would rather the city hand-count ballots than use machines without publicly available software and accused city leaders of failing to stand on principle.

"Maybe things have changed politically," Turner said, "but they have not changed for the activists."

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